Behind the Scenes Minis: Morocco!

Summary

Podcast Summary: Stuff You Missed in History Class

Episode: Behind the Scenes Minis – Morocco!

Hosts: Tracy V. Wilson & Holly Frey
Date: November 28, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this special "Behind the Scenes Minis" edition, Tracy and Holly share reflections, stories, and highlights from their recent group trip to Morocco. Setting aside their ongoing research on Charles Sumner, they offer a personal, humorous, and lively account of their journey, complete with travel mishaps, unforgettable sights, culinary adventures, and even a spooky hotel experience.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Introduction & Acknowledgments

[02:06 – 03:03]

• Tracy and Holly explain that this episode focuses on their Morocco trip rather than Charles Sumner, since that research is still ongoing.
• Gratitude expressed for Michael from Defined Destinations (the travel partner) and Huda, their local Moroccan guide.
  • Tracy: “Huda was with us the whole trip. My spouse and I got a little sick partway through the trip... but Huda was so gracious and very attentive...” (03:04)

2. Travel Challenges & Bus Rides in Morocco

[03:46 – 06:21]

• Much time was spent on the bus traversing Morocco, with long scenic drives.
  • Holly: “I would be sitting there on the bus and see everybody asleep, and I would be like, look… You're not gonna see this ever again. Probably look out the window.” (04:26)
• Tracy struggled with motion sickness due to switchbacks in mountainous terrain, requiring Dramamine.
  • “Staying awake was not an option... I would open my eyes and the view out the window would be radically different from the last time I opened my eyes.” (05:00)
• Despite sleepiness, the bus downtime helped manage jet lag and maintain energy for activities.

3. The Haunted Hotel Story

[06:21 – 11:38]

• Holly shares a mysterious and humorous account of her strange experiences at a hotel.
  • She describes feeling a hand when her partner wasn’t in bed, hearing unusual ticking, and having her covers pulled off by something other than her husband.
  • "There was one night... I had cause to ask Huda, hey there. Any ever been any rumors about this hotel being haunted?" (06:53)
  • Huda replies that her own daughter experienced similar strange events at the same hotel, despite originally brushing off Holly’s question.
• Holly reassures: “None of those activities felt dangerous to me… They all felt very benign... Just weird.” (11:14)

4. Sahara Desert & Camel Ride

[14:05 – 17:31]

• Described as a highlight and the main logistical focus of the trip.
  • Tracy: “I had never seen those kinds of dunes… It was 100% worth it. The ride out to see the sunset was very fun… The whole group was just silent… It just was very peaceful and moving.” (14:27, 15:52)
• Some discomfort from riding in bumpy vehicles pre-camel, but still a favorite memory.
  • Holly: “My biggest concern had been, what if my camel does not like me? Oh, I don't think my camel did like me, but that's okay.” (16:24)

5. Cooking Class & The Blue City (Chefchaouen)

[17:31 – 21:49]

• Both hosts loved the Moroccan cooking class experience.
  • Holly: “The woman that was doing the demonstration was hilarious and adorable and very fun to work with.” (17:40)
• Chefchaouen's beauty and its many, many stairs discussed in detail.
  • Tracy: “I was not prepared for the number of stairs… Some of those stairs were as tall as, like, my leg from the knee down. Worth it again? 100% worth it. Yeah.” (18:04, 18:41)
• Cat stories: Chefchaouen has many cats, including a sweet moment with a local feeding stray cats.
  • “It was just this group of very polite cats waiting to be fed…” (19:04)

6. Navigating Moroccan Cities & Taxis

[21:00 – 22:41]

• Unique transportation logistics in medinas (no cars) and desert 4x4: Taxis needed to get in and out, often feeling like a “car chase scene” with many taxis moving guests up and down the city.
• Similarly playful experiences with 4WD vehicles heading to and from the desert camp: “...it definitely felt like the drivers were racing with each other a little bit. Not in a way that felt unsafe at all, but...” (22:16)

7. The City of Fez & Moroccan Architecture

[22:41 – 24:08]

• Holly: “The architecture of Fez made me cry… There's so much ornamentation in every single space. And you just know that so many hands had to touch it with such care and devotion.” (22:49)
• Tracy describes staying in a hotel renovated from four separate riyads, featuring open courtyards and beautiful Moorish design.
  • Also, playfully imagines “a trained monkey” entering through a bathroom window to “steal the diamond.” (24:00)

8. Fez Tannery Visit & Reflections on Leather

[27:29 – 28:10]

• Tracy appreciated seeing traditional leather production methods, though acknowledges the strong smell.
• Holly notes she now avoids wearing leather, so it was more of a cultural curiosity than a highlight for her.

9. Group Camaraderie & Listener Encounters

[28:19 – 31:02]

• Tracy thanks the group: “It has always a great group of people… kind and interesting and thoughtful.” (28:25)
• Both hosts had fun encounters with podcast listeners upon returning home, though both were so exhausted they don’t remember names.

10. Personal Highlights, Mosaics, Souvenirs & Logistics

[32:22 – 33:50]

• Hosts recall making mosaics (“Mine broke before even getting to the hotel…”).
• Holly had to buy new luggage for souvenirs, with help from Huda and the trip’s assistant, Arabi.
  • Holly praises the bus driver, Abdullah, for his exceptional driving skills: “...Did things with that bus that like most people could not do with a Mini Cooper.” (33:31)

11. Looking Ahead

[33:50 – 34:27]

• Tracy and Holly tease another future trip; both are beginning to brainstorm Morocco-inspired research topics.
  • “We may or may not have some kind of related episode at some point in the future.” (33:56)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On missing scenery due to Dramamine:
  “I wanted to be awake. I wanted to be looking at the landscapes we were passing through… I would open my eyes and the view out the window would be radically different.”
  – Tracy, 05:00

• On the haunted hotel:
  “I have, since I was four, had night terrors… So this could have all just been, oh, that's my brain. But they were extra weird.”
  – Holly, 07:30

• On the Sahara sunset camel ride:
  “The whole group was just silent and it was like we silently rode back to the camp and everybody just seemed to be kind of absorbing what we had just watched...”
  – Tracy, 15:37

• On Chefchaouen:
  “Chefchaouen is so beautiful… but stairs will destroy you.”
  – Holly, 17:52

• On Fez’s beauty:
  “The architecture of Fez made me cry because it is so beautiful and so carefully made…”
  – Holly, 22:49

• On souvenirs:
  “I had to buy additional luggage in Morocco to carry my many treasures…”
  – Holly, 33:06

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Memorable Segments (with Timestamps)

• Thanking Guides & Handling Illness: [02:41–04:10]
• Holly’s Haunted Hotel Story: [06:21–11:38]
• Sahara Camel Trek & Dunes: [14:05–17:31]
• Chefchaouen’s many stairs (and the cats): [18:04–20:15]
• Mosaics, Shopping, & Logistics: [32:22–33:50]
• Looking Forward — Hints at Future Trips: [33:50–34:27]

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Tone, Style, and Takeaways

• Conversational, warm, and enthusiastic, occasionally humorous.
• Full of admiration for Morocco’s landscapes, architecture, local people, and the camaraderie of their group.
• Open acknowledgment of the realities of travel: exhaustion, illness, bumps, language barriers (“stair” surprises), and unexpected mystical moments.
• Repeated gratitude for their support team and travel companions.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode is a travelogue of Holly and Tracy’s Moroccan adventure: full of lively anecdotes (bus naps, cats, desert camels, a maybe-haunted hotel), local color, logistical mishaps, scenic and cultural highlights. They especially praise their travel partners and share plans for more historical episodes inspired by the trip. The episode’s tone is positive, funny, and reflective—a blend of travel diary, behind-the-scenes banter, and warm friendship.

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Skip to:

• [06:21] for the haunted hotel story
• [14:05] for Sahara camel ride
• [17:34] for favorite moments (cooking class, Chefchaouen)
• [22:41] for Fez and Moroccan architecture
• [32:27] for mosaics and souvenir chat

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A joyful, insightful, and occasionally spooky journey through Morocco—as only Stuff You Missed in History Class can tell it.

Transcript

[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Holly Fry]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Holly Fry]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hello and Happy Friday. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This week we have spent the whole week talking about Charles Sumner. Yes, but we're not spending behind the scenes talking about Charles Sumner because we're not done with Charles Sumner yet. And that just it felt weird and confusing to try to separate out our behind the scenes thoughts into two different episodes. What we are going to talk about is Morocco because this is the first thing that we are recording after returning from our trip to Morocco. And so we thought since we have this behind the scenes that we need to do, it would be a good time to talk about what that was like.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

First I want to thank Michael from Defined Destinations. Defined Destinations is the company that we have worked with on planning all of these trips and this, I think is the Fifth trip that we have gone on with defined destinations. Yeah, they've all been great. Also want to thank Huda, who was our local guide in Morocco.

[Holly Fry]

I love that woman.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Huda was great.

[Holly Fry]

Huda and I are buds. We've been texting.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Huda was with us the whole trip. My spouse and I got a little sick partway through the trip. I was more sick. It was not a serious situation, but Huda was so gracious and very attentive to whether I was doing okay. And also, when we stopped for lunch, I was not gonna be having. The idea of trying to sit at a table for the next hour was not acceptable to me. And so I asked her if I could just, like, hang out by the pool while lunch was happening. And she arranged for the restaurant to bring out some. Some sick people food there.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, you have, like, a little soup out there.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It looked like. They brought me some soup and some rice and some Moroccan salad, which is. Was not a leafy green salad. It was a plate of the various vegetable dishes that are sometimes frame. This Moroccan salad. I ate, like, three bites of each of the things. And then I. After a good night's sleep at the hotel that night, we were both fine.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. You rallied.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Holly Fry]

That trip was intense in the best ways.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

It was funny. I was just posting on Instagram about it because, like, we. We were on the bus a lot.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Cause we really went all over Morocco, and I would be sitting there on the bus and see everybody asleep, and I would be like, look, I know everybody's tired, but you're not gonna see this ever again. Probably look out the window.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This was a problem I had.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. I was forever just glued to the window like a child.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. I was looking forward to the time on the bus because I was expect. I was like. I knew we were gonna be driving through really scenic places. Yeah. I also can be a little prone to motion sickness, and usually I'm fine on buses, but a lot of our bus time was in windy, mountainous areas with switchbacks. Yeah, there were a lot of switchbacks, and those were bothering me. And I. So I had to take some less drowsy Dramamine. And I think the combination of jet lag and the less drowsy Dramamine and possibly also my blood pressure medication, staying awake was not an option. Like, I was just involuntarily unconscious on the bus. If I had taken any Dramamine. And I wanted to be awake. I wanted to be looking at the landscapes we were passing through. And what really would happen was, like, I would open my eyes and the view out the window would be radically different from the last time that I opened my eyes. It did have. Even though I was really bummed to just miss the sightseeing out the bus window aspect, it did help me be more functional the whole trip. I tend to have a really hard time with the time zones and the jet lag. And the fact that I slept on the bus did seem to let me be more functional all of the rest of the time. Yes.

[Holly Fry]

Did I tell you about my weird night at one of the hotels?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I don't think so.

[Holly Fry]

I don't think I did either. So let me preface this by saying I know this sounds weird to set the scene for our listeners. There was one night where we just stayed at this one hotel. It was kind of a quick stopover. Cause we were, as we said, traveling all over one. I'm pretty sure that hotel was highly instrumental in the development of Animal Kingdom Lodge at Disney World.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, okay. Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

But two in the morning, I had cause to ask Huda, hey there. Any ever been any rumors about this hotel being haunted?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

What was the answer?

[Holly Fry]

Well, I will tell you after I tell you what happened and why I asked that question.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Okay? Okay.

[Holly Fry]

And it's one of those things that, as I was, I didn't initially want to even talk about it while I was still in the hotel. I wanted to wait till we were outside of it, but then I ended up talking about it at breakfast outside of my room. Because three very weird things happened to me in the night.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Okay.

[Holly Fry]

And when I say these things and I go. And then I go back to sleep, I know that sounds very kooky to people, but please keep in mind that I also preface this by saying I have, since I was four, had night terrors. So I'm used to weird things happening and then being like, oh, that's my brain. So this could have all just been, oh, that's my brain. But they were extra weird. And one of them, I was like, my brain couldn't do that. So first of all, I awakened in the night to a noise and I thought, oh, Brian must have gotten up and gone to the bathroom. And it was pitch black in the hotel room. But I thought the way your eyes adjust to the light, that I could make him out in the bed beside me. And I reached out to him and said something like, are you awake? And I felt his hand in my hand, which is what he would always do if I reach out to him and the. You know, and then the bathroom door opened. And he walked out of it. And I was like, what just happened?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Okay.

[Holly Fry]

And I was like, well, I must be having a really intense night terror. And then I kind of shook it off and I went back to sleep. Also helped by the fact that we ran long days. We were exhausted every day.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

They were very long.

[Holly Fry]

And then I woke up, like, a couple hours later to a ticking noise. And I just thought, that's a weird hotel sound I'm just not familiar with. And I sat up in bed, and I couldn't identify where the ticking noise was coming from. And I was like, I'm just gonna chalk it up to the hotel. And I laid back down. And as I laid back down, I felt what felt like a hand on my shoulder from the opposite side of the bed of where Brian was. Like, I was facing Brian. And it felt like somebody behind me put a hand on my shoulder. And I just. Once again, again, being a child of night terrors, my coping mechanisms are things like saying, hey, be cool. I'm a friend.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Sure, yeah.

[Holly Fry]

And I went back to sleep. And then the third thing was, because I can be a heavy sleeper sometimes, to wake me up when I have asked him to do so, Brian will pull all the comforters off of me. Cause he knows that will wake me up. And again, this is not a mean thing he does. It's like a sanctioned activity we have discussed. And I thought I felt him do that in the night. The covers were certainly gone. But then I realized he was snoring. And I was like, that's not Brian. And when I sat up to get the covers, they were like four feet away from the bed.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Wow.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm like, did I just kick really hard? And my brain made up a scenario? And I don't know. Again, this could have all just been stuff going on in my brain. But we got down to breakfast. An amazing Huda, who I adore with all of my soul at this point, I said like, hey, Huda, has this hotel ever had any claims that it is haunted? And her initial thing was, holly, this is a very nice hotel. And I was like, it is. It's lovely. Like, I'm not complaining. And she said, I've slept here many times and nothing has ever happened. And I was like, huh, Maybe it's just me. And she goes, well, last year my daughter stayed here and she said some very similar things to what you're saying right now.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, wow.

[Holly Fry]

Maybe that hotel is haunted. I don't know. Yeah, it was very, very wild. And I just woke up and I was like. And the thing was, I did actually wake up to Brian, who had gotten up earlier than me and was like, hey, I'll take a shower so you can sleep a little longer. He walked over to my side of the bed and gave me a kiss on the forehead to wake me up. And I woke up in one of those. Like, at that point, I was like, I don't know what's going on here? Is this ghost kissing me now? And he was like, whoa, what's the matter? And I was like, I will tell you later. Yeah, that was my haunted Morocco story.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, that is the. That is the hotel where we became unwell. So in the. The next day, I think you said something to me, like, did anything weird happen in your room last night? And I was like, I don't think we're talking about the same thing.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, yeah. I had a weird one. I had a weird one. Which, again, I want to be very clear to you, none of those activities felt dangerous to me. You know what I mean? Sure. If it was, in fact a spirit, which is not a thing I really believe in. But sometimes I wonder. They all felt very benign. They didn't feel like anything nefarious or evil. Just weird. Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Holly Fry]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Holly Fry]

We rode camel in the desert. That was a highlight.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We rode camels in the desert. So a lot of our bus days were ultimately a product of getting to the Sahara Desert to spend a night at the luxury camp and and ride the camels. Yeah. Which was 100% worth it.

[Holly Fry]

Yes.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I had never seen like, I had been in arid desert environments before, but I had never seen those kinds of dunes that are in that part of the Sahara Desert. Oh, and they're beautiful. And I like, I was looking forward to the camel ride and our night of desert glamping, which is where we left. We left on the camel ride from the place that we were doing our desert glamping. So I was looking forward to that from the beginning of the trip. It was 100% worth it. The ride out to see the sunset was very fun. I enjoyed it. I hope the other folks that were with us, I think there was a variety of comfort levels of riding on the camels in terms of how secure people felt about doing it ahead of time. But the folks that were leading the camels, I think tried to help make sure everybody feels safe and confident. And then at least our group on the way back after the sun had set, there was still plenty of light. It was like a twilight level of light as we were on the way back, but the whole group was just silent and it was like we silently rode back to the camp and everybody just seemed to be kind of absorbing what we had just watched with the sun having set while we were watching it from the dunes of the desert. And it just was very peaceful and moving.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. Yeah, it was beautiful. I had discomfort on the camel because our ride out to the desert, you and your beloved and Brian and I were all in one vehicle with A driver. And I was on the middle seat in the back, which had very little cushioning. And you're not on roads. You're just driving through rock and desert. My badonk was very bruised by the time we arrived. And so then to get right on a camel was like, ooh, yeah. Still worth it. But it was like, I was very bruised for a couple days.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

But it was funny because I had been. My biggest concern had been, what if my camel does not like me? Oh, I don't think my camel did like me, but that's okay. It wasn't, you know, angry about it or anything. It was just like, girl, stop trying to hug me. I'm not here for that. The camel behind me gave me a little. A little nuzzle now and again when we would kind of stop and be close to one another, because you're.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Several camels in a row are tethered together.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

And it was like, my arms gotta work out from holding the bar. But, like. Amazing.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, Amazing. Yeah. Patrick's camel was very smart and on the way to watch the sunset, untied the tether. Mine, too, was fixed, camel.

[Holly Fry]

Well, mine was not. Mine didn't do that. It did what horses will sometimes do where they puff up and so the saddle gets loose.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, yeah.

[Holly Fry]

And so before I could mount to go back, they had to reset the.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Saddle, had to adjust things. Yeah. Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

I was like, I see how it is, camel. I understand.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

You don't love me. It's fine.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. What were some of your other favorite things from Morocco?

[Holly Fry]

We did a cooking class that I was in love with.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I loved that too.

[Holly Fry]

I was in love with it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

It was one of the most fun things we did. It was hilarious. It was adorable. The woman that was doing the demonstration was hilarious and adorable and very fun to work with.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I also.

[Holly Fry]

I mean, I just was very moved by all of it. Like, I. Chefchaouen is so beautiful, which is the blue city that people have probably seen lots of pictures of. But stairs will destroy you.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. I had no concept, even though I had seen pictures of the city from kind of above or a distance. And so I understood that, like, that's. It's a vertical stair. Verticality there. I was not prepared for the number of stairs at all. I had no concept that I would be climbing that many stairs that day.

[Holly Fry]

Well, I think, like, our comparable. Right. Is when we were in Italy and we were visiting Cinque Terre.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Which also has similarly laid out towns that are very vertical. There were still like, pathways through them that were easy grades.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Right.

[Holly Fry]

Chefchaouen is like, by the way, here's a hundred steps. They're not uniform, and they've been here a long time. There are no railings. Good luck. Like, some of those stairs were as tall as, like, my leg from the knee down. So, like, getting up and down them was a little bit of a hiker for me. Worth it again? 100% worth it. Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Folks who could not or did not want to do the steps again, after we had dinner down in the square at the lowest level of the city, took a cab back up.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, I did.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I did not. I walked back. We walked slowly on the way back up. And I saw one of the cutest things on that walk back up, which is, there are a lot of cats. Yes, there were a lot of cats everywhere we went in Morocco. There were particularly a lot of cats in Chefchaouen. And there was a person who, I'm assuming home was there who was feeding the cats out the front door. And. And I could not like, the person was behind the door. So it was just this group of very polite cats waiting to be fed. And I took the opportunity to take a picture of these cats and also to catch my breath a little bit. And so Patrick and the other folks we were with were walking ahead, and I was like, I gotta take a picture of these cats. And the person behind these door. Behind the door who I couldn't see went, you need to smile. You need to smile. That is very sweet. It was great.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

When we.

[Holly Fry]

We went down into the city center as part of our tour in the morning, and after that, we walked back up to the hotel because our hotel was at the tippy, tippy top. And then we walked back down for dinner. And then after that, we were like, let's take a cab. And like, we were in the medina, so there are no cars allowed there. And I knew that, but I did not realize how long the route was going to be to get us back to the hotel because of it. Like, we left at the same time as Michael, who runs the tour, and Scott, who was one of the people on the tour. They were walking back up, and we took the cabs and they beat us to the hotel. Yeah, because it's a very long ride. I mean, it's not, like, arduously so.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But yeah, when we left that hotel to get back on the bus, our bus had been blocked in at the parking area by other buses. And so we had to take cabs from the hotel at the Top, like, just outside the wall of the medina at the very top of the hill, there had to take cabs to get down to the. Outside the city center where the bus was. And they just loaded us all up in what must have been a significant number of the taxis in the city. And they weren't actually racing each other. But it felt a little like we were in a movie in which there was a car chase scene of 30 different people split up across, like.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, for sure.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. And then we had a similar experience going out to the desert camp because we were split up across four wheel drive vehicles with four passengers and a driver per vehicle. And that definitely felt like the drivers were racing with each other a little bit. Not in a way that felt unsafe at all, but, like, different drivers took slightly different paths through the desert.

[Holly Fry]

Well, some of that was so that they wouldn't clump up and make everybody slower.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Right. And, like, not put extra ruts. Like, if everybody was driving on the same path, there would be deep ruts. But it definitely felt like there was, like, a playfulness to the drivers and they're getting in and out of the area, which I enjoyed because I was not on the middle seat.

[Holly Fry]

Middle seat was bad. What else did I super love? I really loved fez.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, I did too.

[Holly Fry]

The architecture of FEZ made me cry because it is so beautiful and so carefully made. Like, there's so much ornamentation in every single space. And you just know that so many hands had to touch it with such care and devotion. And I found that very moving. Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. A lot of the places that we stayed on this trip were really gorgeous.

[Holly Fry]

Ridiculously gorgeous.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And the. The hotel that we stayed at in FEZ had previously been four different riyads that have now been combined into, like, one hotel. And the interior of it was gorgeous. I walked around a little bit and just took pictures of things on the inside of the hotel. Our room had a little balcony that I initially thought overlooked the lobby, which, like, did not make sense in hindsight. I was like, the lobby was not built that way. What it actually overlooked was, like, an interior courtyard that was open to the sky.

[Holly Fry]

Ours overlooked the lobby.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Okay. Okay.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. If we opened up our windows, our little space there looked right down to where we had been when we first walked into the building.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, that was what I thought I was looking at the first time. And then Patrick was like, no, look up. And I was like, oh, that is the sky. And so it, like, it was cool to see that part of, like, the traditional way of building housing that was often around a central enclosed courtyard that was cut off from the rest of the city. We also had a tiny little window in the bathroom that also was open into this like interior courtyard area open to the sky. And there wasn't really a way to secure the little bathroom window. And I kept imagining being in like an adventure movie and somebody having maybe a trained monkey to come into the window and to steal the diamond out of our room or whatever. Anyway, that was one of the favorite places that we stayed of all of our hotels for sure.

[Holly Fry]

Listen to your elders, honey. You might know them from their viral videos, but now the Old Gays pull back the curtain on their podcast Silver Linings with the Old Gays brought to you in partnership with iHeart's Ruby Studio and Veeve Healthcare For a very special bonus episode. Hosts Robert, Mick, Bill and Jahsay talk about how pride has evolved over the years and their favorite memories, all in celebration of Palm Springs Pride, because pride should be celebrated all year round. Listen to these fabulous friends swap stories exploring how queer life has evolved over the decades and the silver linings they've collected along the way. Each episode dives into hot topics from safe sex and online dating to untangling Gen Z lingo, as well as insights on how music, art and fashion show up in queer culture. So check out Silver Linings, a show about how pride ages like fine wine available on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The holidays are back at Starbucks, so share the season with a peppermint mocha, Starbucks Signature Espresso, Velvety mocha and cool peppermint notes topped with whipped cream and dark chocolate curls together is the best place to be at Starbucks.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

Valid through December 3, 2025. Selection varies by location. Select locations only while supplies last. See lowe's.com for more details. On Amtrak, you can spend more time relaxing and enjoying the ride and less time cursing under your breath in traffic. Whether you're going on a quick trip or up and down the Northeast, they'll make sure you do it in comfort, with no middle seats and plenty of legroom. Stretch out without ever stressing out. Book a Traffic free [e-mail] Amtrak retrain travel. I also really liked visiting the tannery that we visited in Fez.

[Holly Fry]

Low on my list.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It had an odor.

[Holly Fry]

Not because of that.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I just.

[Holly Fry]

I've reached a point where I don't really wear leather.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh yeah. I don't really either. But I liked seeing they took us out into a like sort of balcony area that overlooked where they are curing and dyeing leather in a way that has been done for centuries. Yeah. And that was really cool. I'm trying to think of other major highlights. It was such a busy trip with so much that we packed into it that some of it to some extent is still a blur.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, it was a lot of trip. I mean we went everywhere, which is great.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I also want to thank everybody who went with us on the trip.

[Holly Fry]

Super fun group.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. All of this is. I think I said earlier, this is the fifth trip like this that we have gone on always. It has a great group of people have come to. To be there with us always. People who are kind and interesting and thoughtful. In addition to all that, I particularly appreciated that when we needed to leave for the airport at 2 o' clock in the morning, every single person was on the hotel lobby.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That started our arduous trip home in which I was awake for almost 40 hours. I returning to Logan Airport. Patrick and I were getting into a lift and I heard someone say something along the lines of are you on a podcast? And I said yes. And it was another person, a listener to the podcast. I'm trying to remember. I feel like they said I texted you about it. I feel like Leah from Alabama, if I'm remembering correctly. And it was just a person who happened to also be in the area to get into a car. And I was like, hi, I've been awake for 40 hours. Except I was so tired I almost said, I've been asleep for 40 hours. And so that was just a fun little happenstance to happen. I'm sorry if I half remembered your name wrong. I really had been asleep for or awake for almost 40 hours.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, I had a similar thing, but the next day. Cause I did the ding dong move of like the next day I got on another plane to go to Orlando because it was Life Day and I wanted. Right, I'm not gonna miss Life Day. They had Chewbacca in his Life Day robes for the first time ever. I was gonna miss that. But I got to Batuu in Hollywood studios and someone said, I'm a huge fan and I'M like, hi. And I was just like, I'm crazed. Like, I don't. And I feel very bad because she was lovely and amazing, and I asked her her name, and it flew right out of my brain.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

But it was very dear, and I appreciated it greatly. And I was slightly crazed. I was very eager for my ronto wrap, and I was meeting up with a friend, so. Cause Brian was like, I'm not getting on another plane. What? Are you crazy? And I'm like, well, yes, yes. In fact, this is perhaps the evidence.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It is what's happening.

[Holly Fry]

But, yeah. What an amazing adventure. I mean, it was just adventure around every corner, which was really fun. Really, really fun.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Kitty. Yeah. I feel like I still need to review all of the pictures I took and just remember some of the stuff that we did.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. I did not remember the taxis getting us to our bus in Chefchaouen until you said it just a few moments ago.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, funny.

[Holly Fry]

Like, oh, yeah. We did have, like, 10 taxis waiting at the door, and we just kind of got rushed into them, loaded into.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Them, and to go.

[Commercial Announcer]

Great.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So, yeah. We are in the process of working on another future trip for next year. Yes. So hopefully we'll be able to announce that soon. I really loved visiting Morocco and learning so many more things about the history and culture. We may or may not have some kind of related episode at some point in the future. Some of the things that came up were things we had already talked about on the show.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. I have one thing that I'm definitely working on, but it is also related to a European living in Morocco. Mm. And then I have another that I'm trying to figure out how I want to position it and if I can get enough English language literature around it to actually put something together. So.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Okay.

[Holly Fry]

Fingers crossed. Well, we didn't even mention that we made mosaics.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, we did make mosaics. We each made a little. Mine broke before even getting to the hotel, so we gotta glue it back together. Yeah. Patrick's did not break. Patrick bought a piece of artwork and then spent. He bought it on, like, the second or third day of the trip. I guess the second day of the trip, he bought a piece of artwork, and then we spent a lot of the rest of the trip wondering how he was gonna get it home. And the answer was carry it onto the airplane. And it arrived. Yeah. So now we gotta get it framed.

[Holly Fry]

I had to buy additional luggage in Morocco.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

To carry my many treasures. Yeah. Which was hilarious, because that's another great huda moment where I was like a little dazed on our last night and I was like, I gotta go buy luggage. She's like, nope, we're gonna handle that. And like the assistant on the trip, Arabi, literally went out and found me a piece of luggage and delivered it to the lobby.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, lovely.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Thanks, Arabi. Arby was great.

[Holly Fry]

She was amazing. He and Abdullah, who was our driver, who did things with that bus that like most people could not do with a Mini Cooper. I mean, in terms of, like, the way that he could manage that huge vehicle was incredible. Yeah. What an unforgettable trip.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. Yeah. So at some point we will hopefully be announcing a future trip and tomorrow we will be back with a Saturday classic. Monday we will come back and finish up the story of Charles Sumner and then later have a behind the scenes actually talking about the creation of that episode. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Holly Fry]

The only thing between you and your best self is a start button this Black Friday Explore the world with NordicTrack. From the peaks of Peru to the streets of Paris, every workout moves you somewhere new with iFit trainers leading the way. The equipment's amazing, smooth, quiet, and those screens make it all feel real. Ready to start your next workout adventure with the number one treadmill brand in the US shop, NordicTrack.com for Black Friday savings? NordicTrack. Train anywhere. Explore everywhere.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hey, audiobook lovers, I'm Cal Penn. I'm Ed Helms.

[Holly Fry]

Ed and I are inviting you to.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with our podcast, Earsay, the.

[Holly Fry]

Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. Each week we sit down with your.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Favorite iHeart podcast hosts and some very special guests to discuss the latest and greatest audiobooks from Audible. Listen to Hearsay on America's number one podcast network, iHeart.

[Holly Fry]

Follow earsay and start listening on the.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Free iHeartradio app today. Janice Torres here and I'm Austin Hankwitz. We host the podcast Mind the Small Business Success Stories produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with @quickbooks. We're back for season four to talk to some incredible small business owners.

[Holly Fry]

The big thing about working at tech.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Is that it's ever evolving, ever changing. Everyone's a rookie.

[Holly Fry]

That's how fast the industry is changing.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So what I'm really excited about is to be part of that change. So listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, There the last one. Enjoy a Coca Cola for a pause that refreshes. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.